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Champion Serena Williams and top seed Justine Henin wasted no time in slicing their way through the Australian Open draw yesterday, both favourites booking fourth-round slots in routine fashion.
Henin had the harder time of the two but still advanced without losing a set by beating tricky Italian
Francesca Schiavone 7-5, 6-4.
"Francesca is always a tough player, tough opponent, and I knew that," said the top seed. "I knew it was going to be a good fight."
Henin, who has now won 31 consecutive matches since losing in last year's Wimbledon semifinals to Marion Bartoli, meets Hsieh Su-wei for a place in the quarters after the Taiwanese player ousted France's Aravane Rezai.
Williams booked her place in the fourth round with a routine 6-3, 6-4 win over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
Next up for her is 12th-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova who ousted Japan's Ai Sugiyama.
Third seed Jelena Jankovic shrugged off fatigue and nagging injuries to beat Virginie Razzano 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
The Serb had struggled through her opening two matches, saving three match points against Tamira Paszek in the first round, and the clash with Razzano was no different.
After racing into a 3-0 lead, Jankovic struggled, consistently forced to break serve to stay in the contest when her own service game was placed under pressure.
The 22-year-old, hampered by a shoulder injury and fatigue during the tournament, lost the second set but ran away with the third and clinched victory on her second match point.
* If it was not for the fact that he has become embroiled in recent betting controversies, the chances are that few people outside tennis would have heard of Nikolay Davydenko.
The Russian, who did not even have a tennis clothing sponsor until last year, came into this year's Open as the world number four, having won more than US$7 million ($9.25m) in career prize-money.
Davydenko continues to be interrogated at every tournament he travels to, with the Association of Tennis Professionals still investigating a match he played in Poland last August, which attracted irregular betting patterns.
This week, his only sight of the Rod Laver Arena has been as he walks into the grounds of Melbourne Park but until the betting controversy surfaced, anonymity was something Davydenko had long become used to.
"I don't think about centre court for me now," he said yesterday after beating Marc Gicquel of France 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 to reach the fourth round, his third consecutive straight-sets win, all over Frenchmen.
"[At the start of the tournament] I know I need to win four matches to be in the quarter-finals, and I'll be on the centre court."
- REUTERS